From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A vice president (vice-president in British
English) is an officer in government or business who is below a president in rank. The name
comes from the Latinvice meaning 'in place of'. In some
countries, the vice president is called the deputy
president. A common colloquial term for the office is
veep, deriving from a phonetic interpretation of the
abbreviation VP.

Contents

Vice presidents in
government

In government, a vice president is a person whose primary
responsibility is to replace the president on the event of his or her death,
resignation or incapacity. Vice presidents are either elected
jointly with the president as his or her running mate, elected separately, or
appointed independently after the president's election.

Governments with vice presidents generally have only one person
in this role at any time. If the president is not present, dies,
resigns, or is otherwise unable to fulfill his or her duties, the
vice president will generally serve as president. In many presidential systems, the vice
president does not wield much day-to-day political power, but is
still considered an important member of the cabinet. Several vice presidents
in the Americas held the
position of President of the Senate; this
is the case, for example, in Argentina, the United States, and Uruguay. The vice president sometimes assumes
some of the ceremonial duties of the president, such as attending
functions and events that the actual president may be too busy to
attend; the Vice President of the
United States, for example, often attends funerals of world
leaders on behalf of the President. In this
capacity, the vice president may thus assume the role of a de facto symbolic head of state, a
position which is lacking in a system of government where the
powers of head of state and government are fused.

Vice
presidents in business

In business, "vice
president" refers to a rank in management. A trade union may also elect a vice
president. Most companies that use this title generally
have large numbers of people with the title of vice president with
different categories (e.g. vice president for finance); their
closest analogy within the US federal government structure is
therefore not the Vice President as such, but a Cabinet Secretary.
A vice president in business usually reports directly to the
president or CEO of the company. When there
are several vice presidents in a company they are sometimes ranked
by naming the highest ranking Executive Vice President, the second
highest ranking Senior Vice President, and the remainder of the
management team just VP. There are usually several SVPs in one
company, when that title is used. There can also be more than one
EVP. The title of Assistant Vice President is typically used in
large organizations as a subordinate rank to Vice President. The
title of Second Vice President may be used in associations to designate an
individual with rank directly below that of the Vice President.

In large brokerage
firms and investment banks, there are usually several
VPs in each local branch office, the title being more of a
marketing approach for customers, than denoting an actual
managerial position within the company.

A corporate vice president is rarely "second in line" to succeed
the corporate president following death or resignation. Such
decisions are usually left up to the board of directors.

A vice president is someone who helps the president conduct his duties. A vice president also takes over if the president is no longer able to conduct his or her duties.
In the United States, the current Vice President is Joe Biden.